Committee has no standing to rescind penalty

Q. On the first day of our Ladies Club Championship, one of the players was two minutes late to the tee. Since the note under Rule 6-3 was in effect, her marker added a 2-stroke penalty to her score on the first hole. The player finished her round and signed her scorecard aware of the penalty. When the daily scores were posted, a member of the pro shop staff announced that they felt the penalty was unwarranted and adjusted her score. When is the committee authorized to rescind a 2-stroke penalty and adjust a scorecard? -- TPCLGA

A. Unless the committee discovered that the player in question was present at the scene of an accident and provided medical assistance or was required to give a statement as a witness and otherwise would not have failed to start on time, I can't think of a reason the committee would be justified in waiving this penalty.

The player was aware of the penalty and signed her scorecard. Rule 33-7 states that a penalty of disqualification may in exceptional individual cases be waived, modified or imposed if the committee considers such action warranted. Any penalty less than disqualification must not be waived or modified.

Q. I was following my son at the JTL Qualifier at Boulder Creek this week and saw a ruling I didn't understand. A player teed off and his ball crossed over the stream in the middle of the fairway and bounced back into the water. The player wanted to go on the far side of the stream and drop a ball two club-lengths from where it last crossed the margin of the hazard. He was told he could not do this. Why? I thought this was one of his options. -- Concerned Father

A. That stream was marked as a water hazard (yellow). The options for a water hazard (yellow) do not include two club-lengths from where is last crossed the margin of the hazard. This option is only for a lateral water hazard (red).

For a water hazard, the player must drop behind the hazard, keeping the point where the ball last crossed the hazard between him and the hole.

Q. Strange things always seem to happen to me on the golf course. I was playing with my friends when I hit my tee shot and it hit a drink cart. The girl driving the cart wasn't hurt but my ball was deflected out of bounds. We decided since this was not fair I should get to drop a ball where the drink cart was. Did we do this right? -- Art Goodman

A. Art, we have the good news and the bad news here. I'm glad the cart girl was OK, but you were disqualified for breaking a serious rule of golf. What happened to you is the true definition of "rub of the green." If you look at Rule 19-1, it states that if a player's ball in motion is accidentally deflected or stopped by any outside agency (the drink cart) there is no penalty and the ball must be played as it lies.

In this case, since your ball lies out of bounds, you are required to proceed under the stroke and distance penalty and play the shot again from where you previously played -- Rule 27-1. This would not apply if the player had been putting when this happened, but that would be very unusual since drink carts are not usually on the greens.

Sue May is a U.S. Open rules official, a member of the USGA Senior Women's committee and tournament director of the Women's Trans National Championship. Address your rules questions to suemay@cox.net.